Dental bite wing tab x-ray film holder



May 5, 1970 N. GREENE ETAL. 3,510,652

DENTAL BITE WING TAB X-RAY FILM HOLDER Filed Nov. 21. 1967 2 Sheets-Sheet 1 14 20 18 12 FIG. 1

Fl 4 1 INVENTORS NATHAN GREENE ROSE GREENE May 5, 1970 GREENE ETAL 3,510,652

DENTAL BITE WING TAB X-RAY FILM HOLDER Filed Nov. 21. 1967 2 Sheets-Sheet 2 NATHAN GREENE ROSE GREENE ATTORNEYS United States Patent O 3,510,652 DENTAL BITE WING TAB X-RAY FILM HOLDER Nathan Greene and Rose Greene, both of 4622 White Oak Place, Encino, Calif. 91316 Continuation-impart of application Ser. No. 582,711, Sept. 28, 1966. This application Nov. 21, 1967, Ser. No. 689,229

Int. Cl. G03b 41/16 US. Cl. 25070 8 Claims ABSTRACT OF THE DISCLOSURE A dental bite wing tab X-ray film holder is provided which is held, when X-rays are taken, between the teeth of a patient. The X-ray film holder is packed flat so that it occupies a minimum of storage space. However, it is prefolded to enable its being easily opened up to receive and hold the X-ray film packet. Also, the bite wing tab construction is made so that the portion which is held between the teeth of the patient is both comfortable to the patient and will not slip or move when between his teeth. It is also constructed to permit the dental bite wing tab to hold different X-ray film packet sizes.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION This invention relates to dental X-ray film holders, usually known as bite-wing tabs, and, more particularly to improvements therein.

This application is a continuation-in-part of application Ser. No. 582,711, filed Sept. 28, 1966 for Dental Tab, by these inventors.

A dental bite-wing is a device which holds dental X-ray film packets and in use has a lug portion which is received and held between the teeth of a dental patient. The X-ray film is then held in proper position within the mouth and behind the teeth. An illustration of a dental bite-wing tab may be found in Pat. No. 2,274,808, to Rinn. The dental bite-wing tab described therein, which is of the type currently used, comprises a strip of paper which is effectively folded so that the two ends are brought together, and for a portion of a distance from the two ends they are glued together. The remainder of the paper is folded to form a small rectangular enclosure into which the X-ray film is inserted. The glued together two ends are normally considered as a lug portion which is inserted between the teeth. The portion of the bitewing, which encircles the X-ray fihn for-the purpose of being shipped to the dentist, is usually flattened so that the dental bite-wing tab presents the appearance of a strip of paper which has been folded in the center and has been flattened. The dentist taps the dental bite-wing at the folded end in order to bend it to open into the form suitable for receiving the X-ray film.

One of the difficulties with the presently manufactured dental bite-wing tabs is that when they are tapped on the folded end in order to open them up to receive 'an X-ray film, they do not always open properly and may bend to one side or the other so that an actual manual separation is necessary before they can be properly used. This is normally a nuisance to the busy practitioner or his assistant. Another difficulty with presently tmade bitewings is that the paper of which they are made has some degree of stiffness. The human molar or premolar teeth normally have corrugations and when the patient bites down on the lug, there tends to be some slippage of the bite-wing tab with the result that the patient usually tends to bite very hard to prevent slippage or rocking thus making himself uncomfortable. Still another problem with the presently known bite-wing tabs is that there are variations in film sizes. The construction of the bite- 3,510,652 Patented May 5, 1970 "Ice wing tab is such that there is no provision made to ac-- commodate film sizes which are larger than the portion of the tab allotted for holding the tab.

OBJECTS AND SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION An object of this invention is to provide a dental bitewing tab construction which avoids slippage and rocking when inserted between the teeth of the patient and therefore, alleviates muscular tension of the patient.

Another object of this invention is a dental bite-wing tab which is constructed in a manner to be more comfortable for biting by a dental patient.

Yet another object of this invention is the .provision of a dental bite-wing tab which readily opens for use on tapping.

Still another object of the present invention is the provision of 'a dental bite-wing tab which readily opens for use on tapping.

Still another object of the present invention is the provision of a dental bite-wing tab which can accommodate films which have a size larger than the portion allotted heretofore for encircling the X-ray film.

Still another object of this invention is to provide a novel and improved construction for a dental bite-wing tab.

These and other objects of the invention may be achieved by providing a dental bite-wing tab construction in which the tab or lug ends are not glued together directly or by means of a paper sheet with cement on both sides, but rather are glued to a central strip of cushioning material such as foamed or spongy polyethylene, plastic sponge, rubbery material, or several layers of soft paper. The outer surfaces of the tab which are inserted between the teeth may be left smooth when cushioning materials such as spongly foamed polyethylene is employed. However, if desired, for further insuring that the dental bitewing tab will not slip, the outer surfaces of the tab, which are inserted between the teeth, may be corrugated in order to smoothly match the corrugation of the ends of the teeth. The dental bite-wing tabs, while being shipped totally flat, have bends in the region between the center bend or location where the paper is folded over and the tab or lug portion so that a tab normally tends to fall into a slightly open position.

There is an unglued portion left between the end of the tab which is adjacent the portion that encircles the X-ray film and the cushiony material separation between the two tab ends. This permits the tab to open wider when necessary, to accommodate large X-ray film sizes. Otherwise, this region remains closed and the smaller X-ray film sizes are held securely.

The novel features that are considered characteristic of this invention are set forth with particularity in the appended claims. The invention itself both as to its organization and method of operation, as well as additional objects and advantages thereof, will best be understood from the following description when read in connection with the accompanying drawings, in which:

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS FIG. 1 is an end view of an embodiment of the invention;

FIG. 2 is an enlarged sectional view along the lines 2-2 of FIG. 1 showing a portion of the tab or lug end;

FIG. 3 is a plan view of the embodiment of the invention;

FIG. 4 is an isometric view illustrating the appearance of the embodiment of the invention holding an X-ray film.

FIG. 5 is a side view of a bite-wing tab showing the location of the bends therein to afford accommodation for different film sizes.

FIG. 6 is a side view of a bite-wing tab illustrating its appearance when holding a small film size.

FIG. 7 is a side view of a bite-wing tab illustrating its appearance when holding a larger size X-ray film.

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS FIG. 1 is a view in elevation of one embodiment of a bite Wing tab in accordance with this invention. Effectively, it comprises a strip of paper 10 which has been folded in half at the end 12. The free ends respectively 14, 16, are brought together and are glued to a cushioning material 18, in any well known manner. The cushioning material may be cloth, plastic, rubber, or layers of paper, by way of example.

The cushioning material extends almost to the portion of the bite-wing tab which is allotted to encircle an X-ray film. The X-ray film encircling portion is the portion of the paper extending between the end 12 and the locations respectively 20 and 22, in the upper and lower halves of the paper strip. A bend or fold is placed at this position, as is a bend or fold at the locations 24, 26 which are substantially midway between the positions 20, 22 and 12. The bends 24, 26 ensure that the bite-wing tab is partially open, assuming a parallelogram shape, and will fully open upon the tapping of the bite-wing end 12 against a solid object. The unglued space left between the ends of the strip of paper used to make the bite-wing enables the portion allotted to encircling the X-ray film to be larger than usual if required.

As may be seen from FIG. 2, which is a view in section along the lines 2.2 of FIG. 1 and FIG. 3, which is a plan view of the bite-wing tab, the upper and lower surfaces respectively 14, 16 are embossed with corrugations which match the corrugated formation of the ends of the teeth. Accordingly, when the bite-wing tab is inserted between the teeth of a dental patient, there is no tendency for slippage or motion and further, because of the cushioning sensation obtained, as a result of the use of the cushioning material between the lug ends, there is no muscular tension tendency aroused in the patient.

As may be seen in FIG. 4 an X-ray film 28 is readily insertable into the bite-wing tab when it is in the open position and is held there for use.

FIG. is an end view of another embodiment of the bite-wing tab in accordance with this invention. Heretofore, X-ray film suitable for dental X-rays has been manufactured in two sizes. One of these sizes, designated as 0 film size has been used for children and a second size designated as old No. 2 size has been used for adults. However, recently there has been introduced into the market an additional dental X-ray film packet designated as new No. 2, This is for adults and is larger than the old No. 1 packet by at least one centimeter. Also, an X-ray film packet designated as No. 1 size has been introduced. This size is usually used for the youngster (usually about 11 to 13 years) whose molars are too large for the No. 0 size but too small for the adult size film. In order to take care of these variations, a dental bite-wing tab may be employed, of the type shown in FIGS. 5, 6, 7. As before, the bite-wing tab 30 may comprise a strip of stiff paper which has one fold or bend 32 in the middle thereof and the end portions respectively 34, 36 which are formed by this bend are glued to a suitable cushiony material 38. This material may be, by way of example, polyethylene foam, which provides a very comfortable biting surface at the end portions 34, 36. In addition this cushiony material enables the teeth to indent the tab surface thereby automatically eliminating the possibility of slippage. Furthermore, because of the cushiony nature of the material a patient does not apply as much pressure with his teeth to hold the tab in place as is required with the harder prior art bite wing tabs. As a result there is an elimination of the muscular tremors which usually occur when hard biting takes place. This is reflected in the 4 obtention of sharper X-ray pictures, since when the muscular tremors are present a fuzzy X-ray picture is obtained.

Another bend respectively 40, 42, is applied to each of the two sides of the bite-wing tab which is formed by the bend 32. The respective distances 12 of the respective bends 40, 42 from the bend 32 is made equal to the shorter dimension of the new No. 2 size film, if the dental bite-wing tab is to be used for holding the adult X-ray film, or is made equal to the shorter dimension of the new No. 1 size X-ray film packet if the bite-wing tab is to be used for holding the childs size film packet. Another bend respectively 44, 46 is placed in the two sides of the bite-wing tab at a distance 11 from the bend 40, 42 respectively which corresponds to the length of the shorter side of the old No. 2 film packet when an adult bite wing tab is being used, and of the old number 0 film packet, when a childs bite-wing tab is being used. The cushioning material 38 extends from the ends of the end portions 34, 36 to a distance which is at least as far away from the respective bends 44, 46 as to permit the paper material of the bite-wing tab which spans this distance to be used if required for holding the new largersized X-ray film packets. By way of example, the old No. 2 film packet has a short side dimension of 1% inches and the new No. 2 packet has a shorter side dimension of at least one centimeter larger than that. The short side dimension of the No. 0 film packet is approximately A3 of an inch and the new No. 1 size is one inch.

As with the embodiment of the invention described previously, the dental bite-wing tab shown in FIG. 5 may be shipped flat and when it is ready for use, the bend 32 is tapped against any surface whereupon the dental bitewing tab opens up ready for insertion of the X-ray film packet.

FIG. 6 illustrates the appearance of a dental bite-wing tab when one of the smaller or older size X-ray film packet 50 is inserted therein. The film packet is held very securely between the two bends respectively 40, 42 due to the natural stiffness of the paper which is employed. The face of the spacing away from the X-ray of the bottom portion 52 of the bite-wing tab has no effect on the X-ray which is taken. Actually, the spacing is quite small. It is shown exaggerated solely for the purpose of illustration.

FIG. 7 shows the appearance of the dental bite-wing tab when a new X-ray packet is inserted. Here, the paper material which extends between the end of the cushioning material and the bend 44, 46 respectively, is used in permitting the X-ray packet to be inserted into the dental bite-wing tab.

There has been accordingly described and shown herein a novel, useful and improved arrangement for a dental bite-wing tab.

What is claimed is:

l. A holder of dental X-ray film comprising a strip of paper which is more than twice as long as a dimension of the film, said strip of paper being folded at the center to bring the opposite ends of said strip toward each other;

cushioning material means positioned between said opposite ends for adhering to said opposite ends, said cushioning material means extending a predetermined distance from said opposite ends towards the center of said paper, said paper strip having a first hold in the opposite portions thereof a predetermined distance fro-m the end of the cushioning material means closest to the center of said paper strip, and a second fold in the upper and lower surface of said paper strip betwteen said first fold and said center to form said portion of said paper strip between said first fold and the center fold into a parallelogram.

2. A holder of dental X-ray film as recited in claim 1 wherein said opposite ends have corrugated outer surfaces for engaging the corrugations of teeth.

3. A holder of dental X-ray film as recited in claim 1 wherein said cushioning material means comprises a plurality of layers of paper.

4. A holder of dental X-ray film as recited in claim 1 wherein said cushioning material means comprises a spongy material.

5. A holder of dental X-ray film as recited in claim 1 wherein the distance between each of the second folds the upper and lower surfaces of the paper strip and the center fold is greater than the distance between each of the second folds and each of the first folds.

'6. A holder of dental X-ray film as recited in claim 4 wherein said cushioning material means comprises polyethylene foam.

7. A holder of dental X-ray film comprising,

a strip of paper which is more than twice as long as a dimension of the film, said strip of paper being folded at the center to bring the opposite ends of said strip toward each other,

a second fold in each of the sides of said strip of paper which is spaced from said center fold a first distance, as determined by one size of dental X-ray film to be held by said holder,

a third fold in each of said sides of said strip of paper formed by said center fold, said third fold being spaced from said second fold a distance equal to the dimension of an X-ray film to be held by said holder which is smaller than the first X-ray film,

cushioning material positioned between the opposite ends of said strip of paper, said cushioning material extending from the ends of said strip of paper toward said third fold to a distance short of said third fold which is greater than the difference between the distances between said second and third folds and said second folds and said center fold, and means for adhering said cushiony material to said opposite ends of said strip of paper.

8. A holder of dental X-ray film as recited in claim 7 wherein said cushioning material is polyethylene foam.

References Cited UNITED STATES PATENTS 1,445,169 2/1923 Ralph 250 2,021,190 11/1935 Malkasian 250--69 2,274,808 3/1942 Rinn 25069 3,304,423 2/1967 Medwedetf 25070 RALPH G. NILSON, Primary Examiner A. L. BIRCH, Assistant Examiner US. Cl. X.R. 25069 

